Now I've Heard It All

Those of you who follow this blog know that I have written about cats before -- QT, Snape and Floyd, but Oscar is a very special cat whose story needs to be told.

Oscar is a two-year-old feline who lives in the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The only thing special about him is that he has an uncanny ability to predict when a patient will die.

It was reported that Oscar is really not a people-person -- he doesn't lie around all day just waiting for someone to pet him, but he climbs up by the patient as death approaches.

Oscar grew up on the third floor of the nursing facility where patients with Alzheimers and Parkinson's diseases are housed. He makes his rounds much as the doctors and nurses do, but get ready to notify the next of kin if he curls up next to a patient -- that patient will usually die within four hours.

In fact, to date he has been observed in 25 cases, and his accuracy is phenominal -- so much so that the staff uses Oscar as a barometer for notifying the patient's family of impending death.

The story goes that most of the family members are grateful, and they appreciate the companionship that Oscar provides to their loved ones in his or her last hours. And most do not mind his presence in the room, however, one family member wanted him out of the room while the patient was dying, and Oscar paced outside the door and meowed his displeasure.

"Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there," said Dr. Joan Teno, Brown University staff member who treats the nursing home patients and specializes in care for the terminally ill.

According to the doctors at the center most of the people to whom Oscar pays a last visit are not, because of their advanced illness, aware that he is the angel of death. They said most, but what about those few patients who are lucid and see Oscar making his way into their rooms? Imagine how they must feel when told by a cat that their hours on this earth are numbered.

Dr. Teno became convinced of Oscar's grim reaper abilities when she made the visit to patient number 13 in his list of successes. Teno thought the patient was near death because of the telltale signs, but Oscar would not stay in the room. As it turned out Teno's prediction was 10 hours too early, and Oscar came back to curl up with the patient for the final two hours of life.

No one has been able to figure out how Oscar knows when one's time has come, but he is definitely a special cat with a very special ability. It is such a strange, strange world.

Oscar was recently awarded a wall plaque commending his "compassionate hospice care."